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INAUGURAL MESSAGE 



GOVERNOR THOMAS C. FLETCHER, 



TWENTY-THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY 



STATE OF MISSOURI. 



IN SESSION JANUARY 3,° 1865. 



JEFFERSON CITY: 

W. A. CURRY, PUBLIC PRINTER. 
1865. 



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TMP9o-0076C3 



MESSAGE. 



Senators and Representatives : 

In the name of Truth, of Justice, of Freedom, and of Progress, God has 
permitted us a political triumph, bringing with it the solemn responsibility 
of promoting those great principles by an enforcement of the fundamental 
law for securing the peace, happiness and prosperity of the people of the 
State. 

Through the b'ood and fire of a civil war, we have attained to a new 
era, effulgent with the glory of the decree of the People in their sovereign 
capacity, emancipating themselves from servitude to principles and policies 
which have weighed down their energies, opposed barriers to their progress 
and armed the hand of Treason for the shedding of patriot blood. 

The only instance in the world's history of a rebellion against an exist- 
ing Government in the name and for the sake of Slavery, has resulted in 
the enlargement, of Liberty ; and the retributive Nemesis has sent the system 
of Slavery crashing down to hopeless destruction in the conflagration of a 
civil strife lighted by its own hand. 

All men fit to be citizens and partakers of the common rights accorded 
men in civilized communities, must regard and treat as final and conclu- 
sive the recent deliberate and solemn verdict of the people of Missouri, 
rendered in the full exercise of reason restored by the calamities of the 
war, in favor of closing the gates of Janus and restoring the power of the 
civil law, and against the mad attempts to defy the authority of the Na- 
tional Government. The civilized world which has been observant of, not 
less than our own community which has been participant in this unparal- 
leled conflict, must, in that verdict, acknowledge that the position of Mis- 



4 INAUGURAL MESSAGE. 

souri, in the van of the free and progressive States whose attachment to the 
Union defies earthly power to rend, is as enduring as our own eternal and 
eolid mountains of iron, which, based in the deep center of our State, lift 
their firm brows toward the sky in colossal majesty. 

Being victorious everywhere, let magnanimity now distinguish our 
action ; and, having nothing more to ask for party, let us, forgetful of past 
differences, seek only to promote the general good of the people of the 
whole commonwealth. While, therefore, we let past dangers teach us pro- 
vision for future security, let us welcome to a participation in our coming 
prosperity and greatness as a State, all who unite with us in upholding and 
defending the authority of the Constitution of the United States and of 
the State of Missouri, of the laws enacted in pursuance thereof, and of 
the officers selected for their enforcement. 

Behind us we leave the wrecks of old institutions, and all the bitter 
memories of the terrible Past, retaining only the lessons of wisdom our 
experience of them has taught us. Before us, glowing with promise and 
fruitful with hope, is the mighty Future; but be assured, that in readjust- 
ing the framework of our torn community to its requirements, we shall 
need, to enable us to grasp that promise and realize that hope, all the 
energies of our truest and best citizens. 

In point of physical advantage, in the combination of all the elements 
of wealth, in the invitations that are held out to enterprise, and in the mag- 
nificent and swift rewards that wait on industry, no area on the Western 
Continent containing an equal number of square miles, can compare with 
our own State. While embracing a greater number of acres of good agri- 
cultural land than any other State in the Union, Missouri has more iron 
than all the other States combined; lead in quantities greater than else- 
where discovered in the world; mines of cobalt and zinc, and lodes of 
copper; whole districts of country underlaid '' coal ; almost 

illimitable !' ' he most useful timber, including the giant resiniferous 

pine, inviting the hand of ui histry and liberal enterprise to 

gather its wealth; prairie and forest diver, if; 1 where by streams 

affording unequaled water power; one of the largest rivers of the world 
flowing through her center, and another washing the whole length of her 
border. 



INAUGURAL MESSAGE. 5 

In contemplating our natural resources, gratitude for their bestowment 
and pride in their possession struggle for the ascendency ; and we are 
more grateful and prouder still in reflecting upon the heroic resolution with 
which our noble State has shaken off a thralldom fatal to prosperity and at 
war with justice — has buried the dead Past, and advanced the standard of 
Freedom as the emblem of her future faith. We have every reason to in- 
cite us henceforth to great achievement. We have a State that promises 
to be the grand central figure of a cluster of republics, victoriously emer- 
gent with new splendor from the recent conflict of industrial systems. 
There is enough of accomplishment already attained to nerve^ on to tho 
labor of regenerating our political structure, so as to cause it to blaze in 
the sight of the nations of the earth, the brightest gem in the diadem of 
Liberty. 

Henceforth Missouri shall be an asylum for all nationalities and races 
and peoples ; the repository of wealth, and a theater for the development 
of the labor and enterprise of the hand and spirit of Industry ; and the 
home of free thought, free speech and a free press, where the prejudices of 
caste and class have no legal embodiment or political encouragement. She 
shall be a central mart for the interchange of the products of the North 
and the South, the East and the West, through the rivers of her gvr^t ba- 
sin and the system of railways centering in her metropolis. She shall be 
a highway for the commerce of the two oceans, borne by the inland transit 
lines that carry the freights between Europe and Asia. She shall proffer 
a secure and guarded repose to all consciences and all religious beliefs, un- 
tied by any secular control, yet upheld and encircled by a public senti- 
ment upon which faith in God has taken a new hold from the experiences 
of an unparalleled national preservation. 

Let it be announced that in the new era which has come, ours is to be 
the first of States, with the largest freedom and the widest charities. Let 
this be a State where, with the administration of inflexible justice, the 
abandonment of mere partyisms, and the domination of industrial politic?, 
all the advances of statute law progress towards combining labor and capi- 
tal, rather than placing them in the cruel antagonisms of the Past ; where 
the light of hope is shut out by the fundamental law from no human be- 
ing of whatever race, creed or color ; but where a free people, heeding the 



6 INAUGURAL MESSAGE. 

stroke of inevitable destiny on the horologe of Time in the great crisis of 
changeful progress, guards the right of permitting the position and privi- 
leges of every man to be such as his virtues, talents, education, patriot- 
ism, enterprise, industry, courage or achievements may confer upon him. 

It should be our effort to preserve harmony, in every department of the 
State Government, with all the measures of the National Administration. We 
have the sympathy of the Federal Executive in the sufferings and losses 
entailed on us by the War, and in our consequent intolerance of treason 
and rebellion. The strong hand of the General Government may be relied 
upon to sustain the patriotic, prudent and vigorous measures of unim- 
pugned loyalty. 

I hope an early act of the Legislature will evince an appreciation of the 
services of the men who, by their heroic bravery, have made the name of a 
Missouri soldier a proud title. While the loyal people of the State, and the 
soldiers themselves, testify their feeling by generous contributions for the 
support and education of the children of our dead heroes, their efforts 
should be met, if it be necessary, by liberal legislative action, even though, 
in order to avoid the imposition of additional taxes upon our distressed peo- 
ple, it should have to be done at the expense of industrial interests hereto- 
fore aided by the State. Give the orphans of war — the children of the 
People — a home and a culture of mind to nt them for preserving the insti- 
tutions in defense of which their fathers died. 

In this connection I would call your attention to the propriety of the 
expression of the gratitude of Free Missouri to the loyal men of her sister 
Free States who have stood beside us, and made many of our mountains, 
hills, valleys, prairies and river shores historic by their bravery in our de- 
fense. 

It is a duty to ourselves, so far as possible to put every influence, power 
and benefit conferred by civil and military office in the State in harmony 
with the spirit of the principles and policy indorsed by the people in the 
recent election; and I must add, that for all appointments to be made by 
the Executive, I shall prefer the men who have served with honor in the 
fi.'ld, in defense of the Union, they possessing equal qualifications in all 
Other respects with other applicants. 



INAUGURAL MESSAGE. 7 

Our educational system should receive at all times the earnest care and 
consideration of the Legislature. It must be so moulded as best to resist 
the inroads of war, and conserve the ends of peace. Perhaps no better 
foundation can be had than the admirable Common School system now so 
well organized and engrafted upon our public policy. To this, however, a 
superstructure should be added, different from that which has hitherto ob- 
tained. The requirements of self-defense will suggest that more attention 
be given in our educational course to those departments of instruction vrhich 
qualify for military service. And in devoting our energies to the means of 
supplying more extended knowledge to the young men of our State, it 
would be well to confine the furnishing of such facilities to those scientific 
branches which may contribute most directly to the practical purposes of 
life, and to the immediate development of the resources of the State. 

There are two offices which belong to education: the first is the impart- 
ing of a clear understanding of elements, and the second is the application of 
those elements in drill and practice. I rejoice to see that the educational 
tendencies of the day throughout the country are manifested in the founda- 
tion of schools for specialties of instruction, agriculture, the only firm and 
immutable foundation and source of a nation's greatness, receiving the 
largest share of attention. 

I would, therefore, recommend in this connection a revision of the or- 
ganization of the State University, and its transformation into two or more 
departments bearing directly upon the agricultural and mineral wealth 
that so abounds in our State ; and that it be recast and relocated, if this 
shall be deemed expedient for its new design, and constituted a free acad- 
emy, devoting itself to the task of gathering the statistics of our resources, 
to invite immigration ; furnishing brief yet full courses of instruction, that 
may fit the farmer for more scientific methods of culture of the soil and ad- 
vance the very important interests of horticulture ; and sending forth an- 
nually hundreds of young men enlisted in bringing to light the mineral 
masses that vein our soil, or superintending the development of those 
already found. Such an institution would at once become an efficient in- 
strument of progress, and would repay ten-fold whatever expenses might 
attend its inauguration and support. If necessary, to increase its endow- 
ments, I recommend the sale of the State Tobacco Warehouse property, 
and the investment of the proceeds for that purpose. 



8 INAUGURAL MESSAGE. 

I also recommend the revival of the law providing for a Superintendent 
of Common Schools. 

The law for the organization, government and support of the Militia 
should be so modified as to secure its adaptability to the condition of the 
people of the State, and the greater efficiency of an arm of the service 
upon which we are to rely, in the future as in the past, as an indispensable 
means of our security in time of invasion, and to local organizations of 
which we are to look as the means of ridding the State of the bands of 
murderers and robbers who are yet prowling in our forests. The right of 
citizenship and of a home in Missouri ought to be inseparable from the duty 
of assisting in its defense. No sum of money should be adequate to the 
purchase of the exemption of an able-bodied man from this duty. Num- 
bers of men will not compensate for want of skill in the use of arms. The 
men should be so classified, that one-half of them may be called into ser~ 
vice, when the exigency requires it, without detriment to the ordinary and 
now so necessary peaceful pursuits of life. Thorough drill and discipline 
will render one-half equal in efficiency to the whole number of imperfectly 
instructed and undisciplined men. A bill embodying my view on this sub- 
ject is in course of preparation, and will at an early day be presented for 
your consideration. 

The officers of the militia must be men indued with true courage and 
the spirit of reaching a final result in this war, who understand the princi- 
ples of our government, which require the subordination of the military 
to the civil authority, and who are efficient in drill and discipline. 

Another decado of years brings the labor of revising our statutes, in- 
creased by the necessity of conforming them to the new Constitutional pro- 
visions about to be made. Great care should be taken, in framing our gen- 
eral laws, to prevent special legislation, by obviating as far as possible its 
necessity. 

The amendments to the Constitution will require the erasure of the 
word " slave" from our statutes, the abolition of all distinctions of color in 
the law relating to crimes and their punishment, and the abrogation of all 
laws for the fostering and protection of the interests of slavery. 



INAUGURAL MESSAGE. 9 

The enforcement of the civil law to reprcs3 the tendencies to lawless- 
ness begotten of treason, will probably add to the number of convicts 
usually employed in the Penitentiary. The object of the law being the 
reformation as well as punishment of convicts, I call your attention to the 
manifest inadequacy of provision made for the employment of a Chaplain 
for the Penitentiary, and recommend that such compensation be provided 
as will secure the entire time and effort of a competent man, for their 
moral and religious instruction. 

The act concerning elections will, it is hoped, have to be so amended 
as to meet the requirements of new constitutional provisions for guarding 
the palladium of our liberties against the wily and unscrupulous approach 
and unsanctified touch of alien enemies, whose hands are stained with the 
blood of Union men, of traitors who have alienated themselves by flight 
beyond the jurisdiction of the United States to avoid duty to the govern- 
ment or escape punishment for the crime of treason, and of men who have 
written their own infamy by enrolling themselves as in sympathy with trea- 
son and rebellion, and who have not since erased it by the services and con- 
duct of patriots. 

More effectually to guard the ballot-box, a law is necessary requiring a 
registration of all qualified voters in each county, and permitting only those 
to vote who are thus registered. Men who have by rebellion disavowed 
allegiance to the Government, should be permitted to regain the privileges 
of citizenship only through the means provided by the naturalization laws 
of the United States ; while to the liberty loving foreigner who makes his 
home under the government of his choice, and for which he is willing to 
fight, liberal laws should be enacted as soon as permitted by the letter of 
the State Constitution, shortening the probationary term preceding his in- 
vestment with the elective franchise for all the purposes of State elections. 

We should be connected, through an agent, with the Immigration Bu- 
reau, and take the necessary measures for the collection and publication of 
statistical information, not only conveying to the energetic and enterprising 
inhabitants of the more densely populated States, as well as to those of 
foreign countries, a knowledge of our mineral wealth, of the fertility of 
our soil and of the cheapness of our land, but also bringing home to them 
the facts of the adaptability of our soil and climate to the cultivation of the 



10 INAUGURAL MES8AGE. 

grape and the growing of fruits. The wines and fruits of Missouri will be 
sources of incalculable wealth, as has been demonstrated by our own peo- 
ple. The very perfection of fruits has been obtained here, and our wines 
are becoming the favorites wherever their excellence has been tested. 
Show to the immigrant the advantages we possess for wool growing, and 
that he may graze upon our hills the flocks from which may be sheared the 
greater part of the 100,000,000 pounds of wool annually imported from 
foreign countries for our manufactories. Let the exhibition of samples of 
our hemp and tobacco attest their superiority, accompanied by facts and 
figures showing the enormous returns yielded by our fertile soils in these 
and other productions. And bid them come, where the abundance of in- 
dustrial resources renders labor independent, and will make freedom per- 
petual. 

To secure the return of the Union men, who, unable to fight, have 
sought safety in the Free States, it is only necessary for them to know 
that the military policy now adopted in Arkansas and Missouri will pre- 
vent the return of the armies of the enemy to our soil ; that the united 
action of our own people will soon free us of the presence of the lawless 
depredators who, in small bodies, yet infest some parts of the State ; that 
loyal men will be secure in life and property, while traitors wanting secu- 
rity to either will cease to intrude their presence upon us ; that the policy 
of the Department of the Missouri is, unheralded, silently but effectually 
to stamp enduring peace on the State, and ere long to make the voice of 
the law potential in all its hitherto silent forums ; and that Free Missouri, 
like all other Free States, will onl7 hear the distant clash of arms without 
interruption to the prosperity of her people. 

We must deeply regret, as one of the great calamities of the war, that 
we have been deprived of the means of meeting the obligations of the State, 
one of the results of which has been the accumulation of a large amount 
of unpaid interest on our bonds, as shown by the able and very satisfac- 
tory Message of my predecessor. 

The subject of our indebtedness, and the present and prospective con- 
dition of our finances, should be carefully considered, with a view to the 
restoration of the credit of the State. I suggest that if the General As- 
sembly can, at this session, devise the ways and means for the uncertain 



INAUGURAL MESSAGE. 11 

expenses of our militia, for defending the securities ?of our creditors, as 
well as our homes, and determine our financial condition in the future, so 
as to place beyond doubt our compliance with any new undertakings, 
we fund all our over-due coupons, including those to a date to which our 
bond-holders may look with certainty for the payment of a per centum of 
accruing interest, and provide for funding the remainder, increasing the 
per centum of payments annually until we can meet the whole of the cou- 
pons as they fall due ; the bonds thus to be issued for accrued interest, 
and the portion of interest we are hereafter unable to meet, to be styled 
interest bonds, to carry no interest for say three years, then three per 
centum per annum, increasing the rate of interest one per centum per an- 
num, for two years, the maximum rate of interest to be five per centum, to 
run twenty years from date. If the prospects of our several railroads 
taken into consideration justify it, discrimination should be made in the 
time of resuming payment of full interest on their bonds. 

Let our undertakings be only such as we can certainly meet, and let 
them at the same time be such as become a people whose honesty is un- 
shaken by misfortune, who are resolved to pay their debts, and who have 
only to let prudence and energy characterize the management of their 
known assets and resources, to preserve the confidence of their creditors 
and insure their ability to meet their obligations. 

We have seven Railroads, with an aggregate of 826 miles of 
finished railroad in the State, for which we have incurred liabilities 
amounting to $23,700,000, exclusive of interest. The only finished rail- 
road in the State promptly meets the interest on the three millions of bonds 
issued to aid its construction. All the other roads are in default of pay- 
ment of interest due by them. They are ample security for the amounts 
advanced to them respectively. Almost the whole debt of the State has 
been contracted on their account. All the interests of the State, and the 
attainment of the greatness to which we aspire, are involved in their com- 
pletion. If the light of events has revealed that we have committed an 
error in attempting to build up at once a whole system of railroads, instead 
of directing all our means and energies first to building those most neces- 
sary to our wants, and consequently most certain to yield large net earn- 
ings, let us at once seek to correct that error. If, in the present or a 
changed relation of the State to them, we cannot command the means for 



12 INAUGURAL MESSAGE. 

their completion, and if they cannot be made to yield at least a portion 
of the accruing interest on the bonds loaned them respectively, with reason- 
able prospect of their completion or increased net earnings, enabling them 
to meet the whole interest, then it will be our duty, in order to restore the 
credit of the State and to save the people from burthensome taxation, to 
foreclose our first mortgage liens on them, and by their sale reduce the State 
debt to a sum within our easy control, and, private enterprise failing to do 
bo, trust to our future prosperity to afford the means for their completion. 

These important questions will be the subject of a special communica- 
tion which I shall hereafter have occasion to make to the General As- 
sembly. 

I recommend that all charters heretofore granted to railroad com- 
panies or other corporations, and forfeited by non-user, be repealed. 

I call your attention to the propriety of using all the power possessed 
by the General Assembly over our railroad and other corporations, to com- 
pel the exercise of their entire influence in favor of loyalty. I hope that 
every privilege and benefit accorded them will be coupled with the condi- 
tion of forfeiture or penalty for knowingly contracting with or employing a 
traitor, and that the power to enforce such forfeiture or penalty may be con- 
ferred on the Executive. There are no degrees in loyalty ; and whoever 
refuses to use all the influence he is possessed of in favor of upholding the 
authority of the National Government, is a traitor. 

The victorious armies of the Republic are with deadly thrusts piercing 
the enemy on every side. The giant Rebellion, bleeding at every pore, 
begins to reel and faint. Our Sherman, with his veteran braves, stands 
on the Ocean's beach, gazes back at the last deep mortal wound 
inflicted, and waits only to see if another is necessary. The legions of 
Grant, Butler, Sheridan, Thomas and Canby, are rushing on to complete 
the work. The coming spring-time will bring the final blow, and 
amid the battle-cry of Freedom the death of the Rebellion will be con- 
summated, and blessed Peace once more breathe its benisons over the land. 

Reposing implicit reliance in that Power to which all earthly authority 
is subject, and assured that, if we are true to ourselves, a wise and just Prov- 



INAUGURAL MESSAGE. 13 

idence will lead us up the golden stairs of a radiant Future, to the attain- 
ment of the high destiny clearly marked out for us in the bestowment of 
our wondrous material resources, I assume the responsibilities and un- 
dertake the labors of the position assigned me by the too generous partial- 
ity of the citizens of my native State. As your fellow laborer, I claim 
your assistance, your confidence, your forbearance, and your sympathy. 
While doubtful of my own abilities, I yet have unfaltering faith that all 
earnest eifort to support and advance the true principles of Republican 
Government, as approved by the intelligence and patriotism of the Ameri- 
can People in the recent election, will secure me the encouragement and 
engird me with the support of the loyal men of Missouri, and enable me, 
when my official term shall expire, to resign J»ack into the hands from 
which I receive it the trust now committed to my charge, strengthened and 
adorned by the application of radical democratic principles. 

THOMAS C. FLETCHER. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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